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Today I ran into an interesting article about the Amazon Alexa voice service (AVS). This used to be available only on the Amazon Echo device but is now also available for non-Echo devices. In this case they run it on a Raspberry Pi 2! A while back I wrote a … read more…

If you’re a Homeseer user there’s a BIG chance you’ve heard of Jon00. He has created many great extra’s for Homeseer. INFO: http://www.jon00.me.uk/hs.html (enter username/pwd: guest/guest twice) One of the great scripts is “Jon00 Database Charting Utility for Homeseer 3”. The plugin can write data to an SQLite database and use … read more…

Here’s an issue I have run into many times: great plugin/script for Homeseer, but it lacks a web-based configuration page. Result: you need to edit a physical file on your Homeseer server to make changes. Not ideal. So the idea arose to create a piece of code that would – based … read more…

After moving to a different house I decided to get rid of the old crappy X10 technology…. Wow! Suddenly there is….. – no doorbell press notifications – no heating control (solved: smart thermostat) – no central ventilation control Decision: embrace Z-Wave. After talking to a couple of people the following products have … read more…

Last year I found a Kickstarter project called Homey. This product really caught my interest. Why? It does a couple of things that make home automation as accessible as it can get. Always on voice recognition 8 Radio’s Web based configuration App for both Android and iOS. There are so … read more…

For quite a long time the Google Chromecast had been sitting in my mind. There was an unexplainable attraction but not enough to conquer the “why DO I need it?”. As a dear friend of mine says: “Why do I need it? Feeling beats relevancy” For years I have been searching … read more…

For quite some time I wanted to run a local DNS server so I don’t have to remember IP addresses. Yes, there’s many, it’s not my memory. In the huge amount of instructions I was unable to find exactly what I needed. Therefore I will post my configuration that might be helpful … read more…

A while ago I got a call from a friend saying that I had to check out this new Kickstarter project: Plugaway This really looks interesting. Wall plugs that can be remote controlled that also monitor the energy consumption. Looks a bit like a product we’re been using for years … read more…

An updated version of the Worldpopulation script is now available. about 2 weeks ago I noticed that the old script did not work anymore. The problem turned out to be the source website (www.census.gov) which had changed the URL. I have updated the script to version 0.5, supporting … read more…

In an attempt to move away from the few X10 modules I have left in my house I ordered a Plugwise Stealth. This is an ‘appliance’ version of the Plugwise Circle. The Stealth is smaller than the Circle but I expected it to be way smaller. It’s not that small … read more…

A week ago I ran into a post about Easybulbs on the Homeseer support forum. Being very happy with my Philips Hue lights I wanted to know more. These bulbs are also being sold as DekoLight, iLight, AppLight, AppLamp, LedMe, MiLight NOTE: I have not seen or tested any of the … read more…

Yes, on a rainy Saturday afternoon I took my family to the Amsterdam Apple-store where I bought the Philips Hue starter kit. YES it is not cheap but I really wanted to experience these new LED technologies and integrate them into my home automation system. The system uses Zigbee for … read more…